Tag Archive for 'ESA'

The upper two panels of this graphic represent a possible explanation for a recent increase in X-ray flares from Sagittarius A* seen by three X-ray telescopes. As part of a long monitoring campaign, astronomers observed the black hole as a mysterious object called G2 appeared to pass close to the black hole. The timing of G2’s passage could suggest that material from G2 caused the surge in X-ray activity, but it is also possible that this unrelated behavior of Sagittarius A*. The bottom panel is a view of the region around the black hole where red, green, and blue represent low, medium, and high-energy X-rays detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Sagittarius A* itself is not visible in this image, but is embedded in the white dot at the end of the arrow. Image credit: NASA / CXC / MPE / G.Ponti et al. / M.Weiss.

X-Ray Observations of Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole Reveal Unusual Activity

Sep 24, 2015 by News Staff

A long monitoring campaign of the Milky Way’s black hole, called Sagittarius A*, has revealed some unusual activity. Typically relatively quiet, the...

This Hubble image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 3521. The image was taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on board Hubble. Image credit: NASA/ ESA / Hubble / S. Smartt, Queen’s University Belfast / Robert Gendler.

Hubble Space Telescope Zooms in on Spiral Galaxy NGC 3521

Sep 21, 2015 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning new image of a flocculent spiral galaxy called NGC 3521. This Hubble image shows the spiral...

The dot in the cross-hairs is a comet streaming toward the Sun, as seen on September 14, 2015, by SOHO. This is the 3,000th comet discovered in the data from the space observatory since it launched in 1995, Image credit: NASA / ESA / SOHO.

SOHO Observatory Discovers Its 3,000th Comet

Sep 15, 2015 by News Staff

On Sunday, September 13, the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) discovered its 3,000th comet. The dot in the cross-hairs is a comet streaming...

This image, using data from Spitzer and the Hubble Space Telescope, shows the galaxy cluster SpARCS1049+56. At the middle of the picture is the largest, central member of the family of galaxies (upper right red dot of central pair). Unlike other central galaxies in clusters, this one is bursting with the birth of new stars. Image credit: NASA / STScI / ESA / JPL-Caltech / McGill.

Astronomers Discover Unique Cluster of Galaxies Almost 10 Billion Light-Years Away

Sep 11, 2015 by News Staff

A multinational group of astronomers has discovered a distant cluster of galaxies with active star formation occurring in close proximity to the cluster’s...

Mars Express Sees Red Planet’s South Pole

Sep 10, 2015 by News Staff

This new image from ESA’s Mars Express orbiter shows the planet’s south polar ice cap and ancient, cratered highlands. The high-resolution HRSC camera...

This Sentinel-2A image shows an eye of algal bloom in exquisite detail as well as a ship. The ship’s wake can be seen as a straight dark line where the bloom has been disturbed by the ship’s propellers. The image has a spatial resolution of 33 feet (10 m). Image credit: Copernicus Sentinel data / ESA.

ESA’s Sentinel-2A Satellite Sees Algal Storm in Baltic Sea

Sep 8, 2015 by News Staff

ESA’s Sentinel-2A satellite has captured detailed images of a phytoplankton bloom in the middle of the Baltic Sea on 7 August 2015. This particular bloom...

The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds and an interstellar filament. Image credit: ESA / Planck Collaboration.

Planck Captures Magellanic Clouds, Interstellar Filament 300 Light-Years Away

Sep 8, 2015 by News Staff

This image portrays the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds – two spectacular, naked-eye companion galaxies to our own Milky Way Galaxy; and a filament...

This image shows the spiral galaxy Messier 63, widely known as the Sunflower Galaxy. The image was taken with Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Messier 63: ‘Sunflower’ Blooms in New Hubble Image

Sep 7, 2015 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced this beautiful image of the famous galaxy Messier 63, also known as the Sunflower Galaxy. This image shows...

Dust lanes seem to swirl around the core of the spiral galaxy Messier 96 in this new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / LEGUS Team / R. Gendler.

Hubble Zeroes in on Messier 96

Aug 31, 2015 by News Staff

This newly-released image from the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a Milky Way-like galaxy Messier 96. Dust...

$Herschel images of a small fraction of the galaxies analyzed in the new study. The images have a size of 5 x 5 arcsec2. The circle has a radius of 1.5 arcsec. Image credit: Stephen Eales et al.$

Astronomers Find First Direct Evidence of Galaxy ‘Metamorphosis’

Aug 28, 2015 by News Staff

A multinational group of astronomers has shown that a large proportion of galaxies have undergone a major ‘metamorphosis’ since they were initially...

This Hubble image shows a bipolar planetary nebula named the Twin Jet Nebula, located about 5,560 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. Bipolar planetary nebulae are formed when the central object is not a single star, but a binary system. Studies have shown that the nebula’s size increases with time, and measurements of this rate of increase suggest that the stellar outburst that formed the lobes occurred just 1,200 years ago. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt.

Astronomers Capture Incredible Image of Twin Jet Nebula

Aug 26, 2015 by News Staff

Using the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers captured...

Jakobshavn glacier, also known as Sermeq Kujalleq and the Jakobshavn Isbræ, is a large glacier in West Greenland and is among the world’s most dynamic glaciers. Radar images from ESA’s Sentinel-1A captured the glacier before and after a massive calving event, which took place between 14 and 16 August 2015. The image composite includes different Sentinel-1A images from 27 July, and 13 and 19 August. The red, green and blue indicate the position of the calving front and other dynamic features on each respective date. Image credit: Copernicus Sentinel data /ESA.

Sentinel-1A Satellite Catches Jakobshavn Glacier Shedding Ice

Aug 24, 2015 by News Staff

Images from European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1A satellite show that Greenland’s Jakobshavn glacier, the fastest moving glacier in the world, shed a...

This Hubble image shows the intermediate-age globular cluster NGC 1783. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, geckzilla.com.

Hubble Space Telescope Focuses on Far-Off Star Cluster

Aug 24, 2015 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a beautiful image of a globular cluster known as NGC 1783. This Hubble image shows the intermediate-age...

X-ray view of the central region of our Milky Way Galaxy. This image was put together in a new study by compiling all observations of this region that were performed with ESA’s XMM-Newton, adding up to over one month of monitoring in total. The image combines data collected at energies from 0.5 to 2 keV (shown in red), 2 to 4.5 keV (shown in green) and 4.5 to 12 keV (shown in blue). It spans about 2.5 degrees across, equivalent to about 1,000 light-years. Image credit: ESA / XMM-Newton / G. Ponti et al.

XMM-Newton Snaps Stunning X-ray Portraits of Milky Way’s Central Region

Aug 22, 2015 by News Staff

New images from ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray Observatory reveal some of the most intense processes taking place at the hearth of our Milky Way Galaxy. X-ray...

A noticeable feature of the Atlantis basin is the several hundred mesas and small peaks strewn ‘chaotically’ across its roughly 200-km expanse. The uppermost layer of these elevated areas consists of light-colored material. Spectroscopic measurements have shown these consist of phyllosilicates, minerals produced in the presence of water. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Fly Over Mars’ Atlantis Basin in New Video

Aug 21, 2015 by News Staff

A virtual flight across the Atlantis basin reveals a broad variety of phenomena, etched into this landscape billions of years ago. The animation is based...

This Hubble image shows the nebula M1-67 around the Wolf-Rayet star WR 124. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, geckzilla.com.

Hubble Snaps Stunning Image of Wolf-Rayet Star

Aug 17, 2015 by News Staff

The Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a beautiful image of a Wolf-Rayet star surrounded by a nebula of...

These Hubble images show elliptical galaxies with dark, wispy dust lanes, the signature of a recent galaxy merger. The dust is the only relic of a smaller galaxy that was consumed by the larger elliptical galaxy. The X in the images marks the location of supernova explosions that are associated with the galaxies. Each supernova may have been gravitationally kicked out of its host galaxy by a pair of central supermassive black holes. When two galaxies merge, so do their supermassive black holes. Prof Foley suggests the supernovae were stars that were once part of double-star systems. These systems wandered too close to the binary black holes, which ejected them from their galaxies. Eventually, the stars in each system moved close enough together to trigger a supernova blast. These outcast supernovae are located at various distances from their home galaxies. SN 2000ds (left) is at least 12,000 light-years from its galaxy, NGC 2768; SN 2005cz (right) is at least 7,000 light-years from its galaxy, NGC 4589. NGC 2768 resides 75 million light-years from Earth, and NGC 4589 is 108 million light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / R. Foley, University of Illinois.

Astronomer Throws Light on Origins of Outcast Supernovae

Aug 16, 2015 by News Staff

Outcast supernovae that explode all alone in space present a scientific mystery. Prof Ryan Foley from the University of Illinois has developed a theory...

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Reaches Perihelion

Aug 14, 2015 by News Staff

ESA’s Rosetta orbiter yesterday witnessed 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko making its closest approach to the Sun. The comet and the spacecraft were 186 million...

This image was taken from a distance of 186 km from the center of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko; the jet is estimated to have a minimum speed of 10 m/s and originates from a location on the comet’s neck, in the rugged Anuket region. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / MPS for OSIRIS Team / MPS / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA.

Rosetta Captures Dramatic Outburst from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Aug 11, 2015 by News Staff

A dramatic short-lived outburst from 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was captured by the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera aboard ESA’s Rosetta orbiter on July 29,...

The object in this Hubble image is a barred spiral galaxy called NGC 428. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / S. Smartt, Queen’s University Belfast.

Hubble Space Telescope Observes Barred Spiral NGC 428

Aug 10, 2015 by News Staff

The Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured this image of part of an...

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